Two Negatives Makes a Positive
by Tossino
Summary: After Bak has recovered from the attack of the level 3, he goes to check on Fou to make sure she's alright, too. Oneshot, drabble-ish.


**Title:** Two Negatives Makes a Positive

**Summary:** After Bak has recovered from the attack of the level 3, he goes to check on Fou to make sure she's alright, too.

**Pairing:** Sort of BakxFou? It's more friendshippy, though.

**Genre:** Friendship, Humor (there's a little humor, hurr? Like 50/50)

**Rating: **T

**Warnings:** Uh... A tiny bit of language? And domestic violence. (Not really. It's Fou showing her tough love! *Shot*)

**Disclaimer:** My ideas couldn't possible be as epic as DGM. I don't own it.

This is a like two weeks late birthday gift for Meowchow on DGD. It would have been finished a lot quicker if school didn't take so much of my tiiiime what with the long travelling and stuff. (Plus, I'm very lazy.)

She wanted a BakxFou fic, but... It ended up being not-pairingish, but friendshipish. But I'm guessing that's okay lol. xD So happy birthday, Mjau~

Point out any spelling/gramatical errors or awkward phrases. Enjoy!

(Fou's official spelling is For, but I refuse to acknowledge that because it doesn't make sense. Deal with it.)

* * *

**Two Negatives Makes a Positive**

The wall stands tall and proud, nearly reaching up so far it can't be seen. It's truly a sight, truly. If you haven't been there before, that is. It has a magnificant pattern that stretches all the way up - truly a piece of art.

Truly.

If you care, that is.

Bak cares more about the inhabitant of the wall.

Say what? Oh, yes, the wall has an inhabitant. Don't know? The Asian Branch has a guardian deity that lives inside the wall. Yes, that is true. Why wouldn't she be able to live in the wall? She's not... exactly human, is she? Even if she seems that way.

Her name is Fou. She uses the wall for resting and healing. At the moment, she's healing. Or, at least, that's what Bak thinks she is. He has been healing himself, so he's not entirely sure if she's already done with that. They finally allowed him to get out of the hospital ward today. Obviously, he has to check up on her.

"Fou?" he calls out, and the wall gives no answer.

Which, seriously, it should. Yes. It should. Unless Fou insists on both being quiet and refusing to come out. (Or maybe she's just not there.) She does it sometimes. If she's mad at him. Not that he understands what he would have done this time to deserve that.

Well, aside from maybe being stupid and risking his life by going back to where she was fighting an Akuma and thus getting in the crossfire just because he wanted to check on her and Walker which she probably thinks was very stupid, which it was indeed, so it's probably understandable, just that Bak thinks he had a good enough reason to rush blindly into the fight - he cares for Fou and Walker. Isn't it really supposed to be heroic, of sorts?

Or maybe it really is just stupid?

Either way, she should be thankful, despite that!

...yeah, right. Fou, thankful. Those two words do not compute.

Fou shows gratefulness for very few things. Even though those who know her can still see she really _is_ grateful.

"Fou! You're not just ignoring me now, are you? You can't ignore the great me!"

Silence.

The wall starts to crackle.

"_Baka-Bak,_" the wall echoes, its tone rather annoyed.

Bak really wishes he could know where Fou picked up that Japanese word. (It just fits too well with his name. It's annoying.)

The wall crackles a little more, and the guardian soon pulls away from its bindings.

...and flies at him like a rocket shot out of a cannon, flipping in the air so that what collides with his head is her foot. He's thrown to the floor and skids several meters before coming to a halt thanks to a pillar.

What a lovely greeting! _'Oh, Fou, how I love thee,' _Bak thinks - sarcastically, mind you.

"Fou! I just got out of the medical ward!" he protests angrily and huffs as he gets to his feet with lightning speed. "Is that any way to greet a weakened human being?!"

" 'Weakened human being', my ass," Fou snarls, though she's smirking just a little. "You'd only admit to being a 'weakened human being' if it meant you could complain about me bashing your face in. You're such an idiot, Baka-Bak."

"That's redudant," Bak sniffs and dusts himself off with an offended expression. "Two negatives equals a positive. Therefore, I am a genius! Not an idiot."

Fou rolls her eyes and stops in front of him, putting her hands on her hips and somehow managing to make herself look quite big despite being very, very small. She raises her chin so that she can look "down" on him and smirks. She looks very much healthy, and is obviously quite herself, which is good. She has recovered.

He feels great relief to see it. He had been so worried, and even if people said she seemed fine, he had wanted to see it on his own.

"Don't make my head hurt with your stupid overthinking," she sniffs back. "That's not how idiocy work."

Bak shakes his head and decides to drop the subject. This isn't what he came here for. He fixes the last of his clothing to make sure it looks right, then turns his full attention to Fou.

"Are you alright?" he asks.

"I heal faster than you," Fou sneers. "Of course I'm alright. That's my line. I hope you didn't just run away from the ward before they had given you the clear to go. You're too proud to admit you're hurt unless it benefits you."

She prods him with her foot and he scowls, taking a step back. Yeah, so maybe that's true. What's her point?

"I'm fine."

Suddenly, a hand drives into the top of his head and forces him to hunch over just slightly. And when he straightens up again, Fou is holding her hands on her hips and glaring quite seriously at him. He doesn't even have it in him to act offended and just blinks at her.

"Why the hell did you risk your life coming back there?!" she snaps and raises her hand again, whacks him across the cheek, but not very hard. "You could've died! And I'll be damned if you risk your life to make sure of my well-being ever again!"

She knows that he came back for Walker's sake, too, but yes, he had had her in mind as well. Fou hates when people care that much about her, because she's a guardian deity. But Bak thinks she's important. _Important_. He doesn't know if she can die, but what if she can. He doesn't want that to happen.

She slaps him again, but still not hard. "Don't you dare pull that stunt again!" she growls and raises her hand to slap him again as he tries to protest ("That's not--"), but when she swipes it towards his cheek, she suddenly freezes.

And then she falls to her knees with a sharp intake of breath. "Fou!" he cries and crouches down next to her, grabs her arms that are placed between her legs for support. "For God's sake, you're _not_ alright!"

"Shut up. I am," she protests in a mutter, but she's breathing heavily by now and she's not looking up. And that's not good. She should look up and glare him defiantly in the eyes like she always does when people say she's not alright.

She _can_ raise her head, right?

He tugs at her arms - wants to shake her very badly, but he's doesn't dare, how would it affect her - and frowns. "No, you're not. Don't lie to me, Fou."

"Hypocrite," she huffs.

"I don't want you to worry about me," he explains himself.

"Hypocrite!" she repeats sharply. "I don't want _you_ to worry about _me_. I have a much more valid reason to worry about you, because you're a mortal human and it's my duty to protect you as the Branch Head! I'm just a damn guardian!"

"You're more than that!"

He does shake her a little this time. Haven't they already been through this? He's absolutely sure they have. He grits his teeth and lowers his head as well, and there they sit, with their eyes hidden from the other (his eyes are closed).

"I've already told you all this, Fou," he grumbles. "We've been through this already. You're... important to me, so I can't not worry. We don't know if you can die, so... I don't want to risk it. So... if you're hurt, Fou - and you are, right? - then I want you to tell me. Why are you hurt?"

_'Why is your breath hitching every other second?'_

There is a long pause, but Bak doesn't look up. He can hear Fou's breathing evening, and she could probably stand up now, if she wanted. But she doesn't. He loosens his hold on her arms, and realises that... she's trembling. Which shocks him, and he's not sure what to take it as. As a sign that she is indeed hurt, or that she's... frustrated or something. Upset?

And she finally answers. And he realises, by her tone, that she's trembling from suppressed anger. Anger at who, or what, though?

"I didn't know... that it would be so painful to have someone break through my barrier," she says between gritted teeth. "But I didn't think that there would be... after-effects for so long afterwards. It was still painful a day later, but I didn't think of it much, but now... I'm still... tired. I can't do much else aside from walking..." She tears her arm out of his grip, punches the stone floor and shouts in now-very-obvious anger; "How long will it be like this?! I'm fucking sick of it!"

She rapidly stands back up, wobbles and stumbles a little as Bak stands up too, but manages to keep up straight.

"I don't know," he says and puts his hands on her shoulders to steady her (even if she glares at him for it). "I don't understand enough about magic to narrow down to any guesses..." He swallows. "Do you think... Will it pass?"

"It has to!" she exclaims, and her eyes are wide as she stares at him. "If it doesn't--" She frowns and stomps on Bak's foot for no reason. "Don't say that!" Oh, that was the reason. "There's no way I'll accept that! Even if people'd say that, I wouldn't let it put me down. Whatever it takes, I'll recover, even if it's supposed to be permanent damage. In that case, I'll do the impossible. I wouldn't give up! Walker isn't better than me!"

She has that stubborn glint on her eyes and she stomps on Bak's foot again for good measure, for even daring to put her down even slightly for a very short moment. This time it really hurts and he releases her shoulders to grab the foot with a hiss. He doesn't bother to say that it isn't the same for Walker; that it hadn't been impossible, just _maybe_ impossible, but the Innocence stuck around for a reason, and their assumptions were right and Walker had managed to get his weapon back.

He doesn't want to anger or upset her further, since she's so determined, and... he wants to believe she'll recover too. So he just stays silent, and briefly wonders how Walker is doing, now that they brought that subject up.

He wants to talk to her. But she should rest.

"Maybe you should go back," he says and nudges his head at the wall. "And get better. Prove that Walker is, indeed, not better than you."

He smirks at her and she raises her hand warningly, but doesn't do anything. "Yeah, yeah," she says and returns the smirk. "I don't need to prove anything."

She flicks him on the forehead and he watches as she strides back towards the wall with her chin held high. He feels a bit calmer, and he has to smile, despite that flick.

Fou is fine alright.

(Wait. What?)

* * *

Err... the ending. It's like... "Fou is fine" as in "Fou is so fine", sort of. That was what hit Bak there. Eh... Something... like... that... *Trails off* .___. Pretty lame?


End file.
